mined it?"

"She told me it was Tea."

"Moggridge, you have been given away, as the Yankees put it. I have
been sold, which is bad; but you have been 'given away,' which is
worse."

"You were sold for 'love,' which is pretty much the same, I take it,
as being given away," objected the Poet testily.

"Not at all the same, Moggridge, as being given away--with half a
pound of Tea."

Footnote, Chapter XXIII
[1] Medicine.

CHAPTER XXIV.

OF THE BEST HELLEBORE; AND AN EXPERIMENT IN THE ENTERTAINMENT OF
TWINS.

For three days Mr. Fogo continued to propose. On the evening of the
third day the little Doctor shook his head. After this, for about a
week, Mr. Fogo proposed and the Doctor shook his head at intervals.
Finally, and in the middle of a sentence, the patient fell into a
deep slumber.

When he awoke, it was to the conviction that he, Mr. Fogo, being a
bolster, had been robbed of his rightful stuffing by some person or
persons unknown. He had lain for some time pondering this situation
with a growing resentment, when he was aware of some one sitting
between him and the sunshine.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I am Tamsin Dearlove."

The remark made by Diogenes under somewhat like circumstances would
have been ungallant. In the process of searching for a better the
sick man fell asleep again.

What happened on his next return to consciousness shall be given in
his own words. He told me the story last autumn:--

"You see," he explained shyly, "I have not, my dear young friend,
that ingenuity of phrase which I so admire in you" (I protest I have
not the heart to suppress this tribute), "but seeing that, in such a
case, experience counts for something--and naturally, at your age,
you have yet to learn what it is to propose to a woman--I think I had
better tell you exactly what happened, the more so as it is a matter
which, if, as you assure me, necessary to your chronicle, I desire to
be related with accuracy. I am not, you understand, in the least
reflecting on your love of truth, but, after all, I _did_, as the
obnoxious phrase has it, 'propose' to Tamsin, whereas you--ahem--did
_not_."

I am convinced my friend meant to say "would not have had the
infernal impudence," but softened the expression, being habitually
careful of the feelings of others.

"When I awoke again," he went on, "she was seated in the window,
knitting. I lay for a long while watching her--indeed, this is my